A computer anti-malware program aims to detect, prevent, and remove malicious code from executing on a computing device and creating unwanted consequences. Malware may take the form of a computer virus, computer worm, spyware, adware, a Trojan horse, a rootkit, and so forth. Malware or malicious code may add, delete, or tamper with segments of programs, files, memory locations, or boot sectors.
An anti-malware program may be utilized to scan storage devices for files and memory locations that may have been infected and corrupted. The anti-malware program may scan a file when it is installed onto a computer system or whenever the file is opened. The anti-malware program may also be scheduled to scan files or memory locations at regularly scheduled intervals. When malware is detected, remediation may be performed to repair a corrupted portion of a file, to restore the corrupted file to a clean state, or to remove the infected portion from a file. However, the remedial measures may not be sufficient since the source of the infection may still be present after the remediation.